Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-10-05
a MARBLE LOVE
Tn. Story OF n Statue

Every one in the village pitied Mary
Calvert. She was only seventeen years
old, and 10 be married to such a morose
aud mysterious man as her husoand
WAS no fortune 70 be envied-
Louis Calvert was a chemist, and
lived the life of "A recluse shut up in his
laboratory. The villagers said he was
I'M league with the devil and that the
two held high carnival in that mysteri-
Gus room full of strange vessels and
bright liquids in many bottles.
Mary would have made a very loving
wife to him if he had let her, but he
was too much wrapped up in his science
TO care for anything else
He had been married before, and she
sometimes thought all the best love OF
his nature was with that wife.
In the dsctor's laboratory stood a
statue of a beautiful woman in marble
directly in front of his desk. y wo-
man. tall and weil-rounded, with
glorious wealth of hair about her shOul-
ders, stood with parted lips and laugh
ing eyes and extended arms, as II say
iug To her lover, Come"
The marble was in all respects terri
hIy life-like. IL never failed TO thrill
one at the first glance The position
was So natural, the tint OF the cheeks,
II appeared To Mary Calvert, sshe COW
ertly studied tho image, riyalled her
own Most wonderful of all aud most
Inexplicable of all, that awful feeling
always grew stronger upon her rs she
stood near this strange statue often
the doctor would pause IN his work,
quickly raise his head as If called, and
b0wiug toward the image, say, with
queer, sad smile, Nay, nay, cannot
come yetn; but his hoTrOr-Stricken wife
knew he was buried in thought and was
not conscious OF what he was doing.
She soon gave up her visits To the
strange, Haunted chamber, and never
entered q but once again when she
went TO gaze upon that terrible marble
beauty. To learn its horrible secret, and
To rain kisses in heart-brUken anguish
upon the cruelty beautiful face OF her
husband, cold in death.
Tie village guSsips who know almost
all family secrets, who go behind closed
shutters, daTkeued curtains and locked
doors on their evil ways, soon came TO
know the young wife's trouble. They,
too. had heard strange stories OF that
mysterious apartment. one of their
number had boldly made her way INTO
its most secret rrCeSSes. She had heard
the DOCTORS heavy voice blended with
the soft and gentle love tones of 4 wo-
man-but she had seen nothing
Depend on II, my dear, said this
cruel aud reckless village telltaIe,
there's some one IN there with himi
that's what makes your flesh creep
while you're there. She's hiding and
watching you.
The Young wife suffered in silence.
she loved her husband and believed he
loved hsr-when he was out Of that
dread presence. In their own sitting
room he was kind and atfectionate. IL
was only when he sat before the mar
Die beauty, in the ghOstly lights OF the
mauy-curtaiucd laboratory, that he fall
Ell to answer her with a smile or kind
word. Is 10 not SO with all of usE Do
we not have haunted rooms IN our
hearts, in which we retire for anguish
Ell hours and neglect those who are
dearest to us now and love us best,
while we and memory converse with
the deady
20 il WIS with Louis Calvert.
The first young wife of long ago had
been given AL the real, pure, true love
his heart had ever known, and she had
easily Influenced, another had caused
her TO break her marriage vows, and
her husband had slain her. Just as
the marble beauty stood with extended
arms, smiling lips. and laughing eyes,
that first young wife had stood on
long gone morning before her lover,
but not her husband, saying: ''Come.
The young doctors vengeance had
been terrible. The man who had rob-
bed him had met death mysteriously-
only the doctor ever knew how. The
young wife had faded away silently
from the earth. But every day the
doctor stood before the petrihed image,
in that darkened, mysterious studio,
and his revenge continued. And when
AL alone he auOinted those marble limbs
with n strange elixir, and the blood
again courSed swiftly through the false
wIfe'S veins, the smiling lips parted in
perfect speech, the bright eyes sparkled,
and the extended arms eagerly beckOn-
ed him TO Come
But he would never allow them to
clasp him.
Never for 4 long time. But the heart
IS not always stone, revenge is satiated
at last, AMI one morning the doctor
forgetting his later love, forgetting nj
save the memory Of his first boyish pas
sion, rushed into the marble beauty
embrace, and the soft, fair arms CloseC
upon HIM, the smiling lips careSSed hi
own, and the laughing eyes beamed il
love upon him. Age dropped iron
him; he was again the young AM
ardent lover as when he had last fel
those arms around him. Then tn,
power of the Ete-restoring elixir faded
and the marble beauty became marbl
again.
30 his wife and the village gossi
found him many hours later, tight
clasped m those marble arms, crushe
and lifcleSs, but with a smile upon hi